CVS Health recently announced that it is expanding its MinuteClinic—now the offering will include a virtual option. This is yet another example of disruption in the health-care industry that has the potential to provide disruption and opportunity alike for workers’ comp carriers.
As the general population becomes more comfortable with this form of health care, the opportunity to keep minor injuries minor and to avoid emergency room visits will increase. Virtual medicine offers injured workers the chance to get immediate advice and care without the travel and expense associated with ER visits.
Carriers have been experimenting with telemedicine with mixed success. It is difficult to expect injured workers to embrace the shift, in part due to the low utilization in the health-care space. However, Millennials have a different attitude toward health care; they are quick adopters of new ways to have health care provided. As they are already are a large part of the workforce, this announcement by CVS has a reasonably good chance of adoption.
As traditional medical services contract, telemedicine and complimentary walk-in clinics offer an alternative. California, in particular, will be an interesting state to observe with regards to the uptake of these services. The state houses a large agriculture industry where workers are often not immediately adjacent to larger medical facilities. The changes in agriculture’s relationship with telemedicine can serve as a forecast for other industries where workers might not have ready access to care, such as trucking. In addition, for companies that want to provide support for their employees traveling internationally, this could offer some enhanced medical care.
Insurers across all lines are looking for ways to mitigate risk and provide better ancillary risk services to their policyholders. For workers’ comp carriers especially, virtual medicine solutions like CVS Health’s virtual MinuteClinic fit perfectly into that trend.
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